Martin Škrtel (Liverpool -> Fenerbahce)

Rafael Benítez placed Liverpool's title credentials into stark perspective yesterday when he conceded the club are still playing catch-up with their main Premier League rivals.The manager's admission came as the club stepped up interest in the Slovakian central defender Martin Skrtel - 23 and with Zenit St Petersburg - for a fee around £4m and Benítez mounted a firm defence of his reign, dismissing criticism that, after the home draw with Wigan that left his side 12 points adrift of Arsenal, he has not made significant progress in the Premier League in four seasons at the club.

Re: Martin Skrtel (Zenit St Petersburg)

Well the assumption is Zenit are bollocks, but they're no mugs, and will be in the Champions League next year. The Russian league is reversed, so their season is finished right now, and Zenit came top above the likes of CSKA and Spartak, so they can't be bad, and neither can this guy.

His main target, Martin Skrtel of Zenit St Petersburg, is due to arrive on Merseyside for talks over a possible £4million transfer.

The international defender has already played on Merseyside this season having turned out for Zenit St Petersburg in their 1-0 defeat at Goodison Park last month in Group A of the UEFA Cup.

The 23-year-old helped his club to win the Russian Championship in the autumn and has 15 caps for Slovakia, having broken into the national team in 2004, the same year that he moved to Zenit from his first club, Trencin.

Skrtel, who is 6ft 3in and could have chosen a career in ice hockey, has netted three times in 74 appearances for Dick Advocaat’s side. His contract expires at the end of this calendar year.

Re: Martin Skrtel (Zenit St Petersburg)

Yup, in slovak national team /I am from Slovakia/ and couple of games for Zenit. Very very good, talented player. You'll see. The other teams interested in him were: Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, FC Everton, FC Valencia.

Re: Martin Skrtel (Zenit St Petersburg)

LIVERPOOL are set to break their transfer record for a defender by paying £6.5m for Slovak international centre back Martin Skrtel.

The Zenit St Petersburg star arrived on Merseyside last night ahead of a medical today and the club are confident the deal will be finalised within the next 48 hours.

Chief executive Rick Parry thrashed out a deal with Zenit officials during talks in Russia at the weekend.

Skrtel is rated as one of the most promising defenders in European football and Liverpool have had to beat off competition from some of the continent's top clubs to set up the deal.

Should the transfer go through as expected it will mark the end of Rafa Benitez's search for a new centre-half that began with the ultimately unsuccessful pursuit of Gabriel Heinze and which became increasingly urgent in recent weeks following injuries to both Daniel Agger and Sami Hyypia.

Skrtel is a 23-year-old full Slovak international with 15 caps to his name.

He joined Zenit in 2004 and has gone on to make more than 100 appearances in the Russian league.

Standing 6 ft 4 ins tall, Skrtel has a reputation as a no-nonsense defender who does not shy away from the physical side of the game.

With Agger – who was named Denmark's player of the year at the weekend – still not ready to make his return to first team action after suffering a metatarsal injury last September, Benitez has been short of cover at centre back for several months.

That situation worsened recently when Hyypia picked up an ankle injury at Derby County on Boxing Day, leaving Benitez with only Alvaro Arbeloa, a full-back, and teenager Jack Hobbs as his options to partner Jamie Carragher in the centre of defence.

Benitez will be keen to see the deal for Skrtel tied up as quickly as possible so he can be added to the Liverpool squad, possibly even in time for the trip to Middlesbrough on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Rick Parry today dismissed suggestions he is flying to the USA for an urgent meeting with Tom Hicks and George Gillett regarding Benitez's future.

The appointment is a diary engagement to discuss new stadium plans and Parry insists no discussions about the manager's position are on the agenda.

He said: "It's been in the diary for a long time, to discuss the stadium."

Not the attacking signing I would have hoped for but I can see the sense in another centre-half. Although Agger is nearing his return which would leave us with Sami and Hobbs as cover.

Re: Martin Skrtel signing for £6.5 million

Good news - we badly needed defensive cover and this boy sounds a decent prospect - now off-load Voro, Momo and JAR get a quality, world-class for the sum total of sales, offensive player... David Villa anyone?

He is FC Previdza school graduate. Played for Slovakian teams FC Previdza and FC Trencin.

From 2004 Martin’ been playing for FC Zenit. He made his debut in the Russian Cup match on 31 July, 2004 against FC Irtysh.

Capped for the Slovak youth national team and then Slovak A-team. As well as Kamil Contofalsky, Martin faced his teammates from FC Zenit during the World Cup 2006 preliminary fixture Russia vs Slovakia, which ended with the victory of the latter.

Track record

2001 - youth champion of Slovakia

Get to know more

• Martin could have become a hockey player but he has chosen football, inspired by his father’s football career

• Martin claims that the presence of Slovak and Czech players was very important for him to accustom himself to the new team

• Martin has tried several positions on the pitch: midfielder, attacker and chose defense aged 16

Played in official matches for Zenit - 113, goals scored - 5. Played for Zenit in Russian Championship - 74, goals scored - 3. Played for second team - 4.

Re: Martin Skrtel signing for £6.5 million

Nice to hear this news when all that's been going on lately is negativity from the press. They were slow to pick up on this weren't they. :

I think it probably indicates that Hyypia's days of regular games are nearing the end. But it's great that an important bit of cover in that position is hopefully sorted. Hopefully it's a start to some decent transfers. Anyone reckon he looks a bit like Finnan?

Re: Martin Skrtel signing for £6.5 million

Thank God we are finally getting some back up in central defence although he won't be able to pay in the Champions League this season.

I think he play in the champions league this season,I think the offical rule is you can add 3 players to the original team named in August but only one that has played in a different european competition(UEFA Cup,Intertoto) can be registered.I think I saw this about the possibilty about Berbatov(if he moves) playing in the Champions League having already played in the UEFA Cup with Spuds.